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Colombian officials have accused Venezuela of violating Colombia's airspace after a Venezuelan military helicopter on Wednesday allegedly spent 20 minutes over the Colombian border city of Arauca where there is a large military base. Read moreBy Planet Data

The Malaysian government-linked New Straits Times reported Thursday that Malaysian authorities arrested 10 suspected terrorists last week who are allegedly linked to the man who tried to blow-up a U.S-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that his country worked with "international anti-terrorism agencies" to nab the suspects.
The UK's Telegraph reports the men are from Malaysia, Syria, Nigeria, Jordan and Yemen. Read moreBy Planet Data

Search teams say they believe they have located the flight data recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday. The "black boxes" are said to be about 6 miles off the coast of Lebanon, at a depth of about 4,300 feet.
It is still not clear why the plane turned from the coarse the Lebanese air traffic controllers suggested just after take-off. But in doing so the aircraft entered a severe thunderstorm, quickly disappeared from radar and went down. Read moreBy Planet Data

NASA has given the green light for the February 7 launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to make a 13-day flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
Endeavour's nighttime launch marks the beginning of the end for space shuttle operations. There are five missions planned for 2010 and the fleet goes into mothballs. Read moreBy Planet Data

According to an article (link below) from the state-run Russian news service, RIA Novosti, Vitaly Lopota, the director of the Russian space company Energia, described on Wednesday some of the more "exotic" plans the company is considering for using nuclear power in space. Energia's possible nuclear projects include military satellites, "space tugs", and a moon-based power plant. Read moreBy Planet Data

The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told reporters Wednesday that India plans to launch its first manned space mission in 2016, with two astronauts spending 7 days in orbit. Read moreBy Planet Data

An Ethiopian Airlines aircraft carrying 89 people from Beirut to Addis Ababa crashed on Monday, January 25, into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 was just minutes into its journey to Addis Ababa when the Boeing 737-800 plunged into the sea in what witnesses described as a "ball of fire".
A statement on the airline’s website said passengers were predominantly Lebanese or Ethiopian, but two Britons were also onboard along with citizens of Turkey, France, Russia, Canada, Syria and Iraq.

Saad Hariri, Lebanon's prime minister, declared Monday a national day of mourning. After arriving at the airport to offer comfort to the relatives of those on board the flight, he said: "We are working with all the power we have to try and find missing people from this tragedy.
"We are working to find the black box that will tell us what really happened on the plane."
Lebanese army patrol boats were seen scouring the waters around…

A Pakistani intelligence official confirmed to CNN that what is believed to be a U.S. done has crashed in Pakistan. The aircraft is said to have gone done Sunday night near the village of Hamzoni in North Waziristan, about 3 miles from Miran Shah. It is not clear whether it was shot down or malfunctioned. Read more

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed into the Mediterranean off the coast of Lebanon early Monday (1/25) morning. The plane was carrying 90 passengers and crew when it went down shortly after taking off from Beirut. Read moreBy Planet Data

Saturday afternoon a United Airlines flight from Washington DC to Las Vegas had to divert to Denver after an unruly passenger, who may have been drunk, tried to open a door in midair. The plane landed safely and the man was taken into custody. Read moreBy Planet Data

In a TSA blog post Friday, Blogger Bob explains the different roles of the TSA, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when it comes to examining travelers' laptop computers.
Blogger Bob wants the public to understand that it is not TSA screeners who are searching the contents of a laptop, it is CBP agents. TSA will only examine the outside of a computer and perform an explosives trace detection test. Read moreBy Planet Data

Friday afternoon a United Airlines flight en route from Washington to San Francisco was forced to return to Dulles International Airport after a large bird was sucked into one of the jet's engines. The plane landed without incident.

Following the great chill throughout most parts of the Northern Hemisphere which has in many respects dominated the news and events or at least how easily people could get to them, we bring you a HOT list of exciting new worldwide events for February 2010.

Groundhog Day - Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney, USA 2nd February
Groundhog Day is one of the United States' best-known and for outsiders, most bizarre traditions. This remakable Day is a weather predicting ceremony and guess who is making the predictions? The Groundhog of course! Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) has been making predictions for over 120 years! How is that possible? By drinking the "elixir of life", a secret recipe that gives Phil 7 more years of life everytime he drinks it! So each year on February the second, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob in front of thousands of followers from all over the world to predict the weather for the rest of winter. After he emerges from his burrow, …

A German broadcasting company and a group called Chaos Computer Club say they have worked out a way to remotely access data stored on airport employees' key cards. The group says they used a device to covertly read the identification cards of Hamburg airport employees, save the data and then they used it to access secure areas of the airport without detection. It is theorized that the ability to access such data in this manner could make it possible for terrorists to gain access to restricted areas of the airport thus raising security concerns with the German government, the police and airport officials. A review of security procedures has been called for.

AirTran Airways announced on January 14 that Alan Dreher has joined the company as director of corporate security, a newly created position. Dreher will oversee corporate security and compliance with all federal security regulations for AirTran Airways and will be based in Atlanta.

Dozens of inbound and outbound flights were halted and a terminal evacuated after a Brooklyn man walked through two secure doors at JFK Airport. After he walked through the second secure door, an alarm sounded alerting officials to the breach. The security violations were also captured on video and the man was identified as Jules Paul Bouloute.
He was later arrested at his home and charged with criminal trespass.

A flight from Amsterdam to Aruba was diverted to Shannon Airport in Ireland on Wednesday after an "unstable" passenger allegedly told the crew there was a bomb on board. The plane made an emergency landing without incident and a 44-year-old Dutch man was arrested.

CNN reports that it has spoken to a number of senior U.S. officials who have said they are monitoring a "credible threat" from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) against the U.S. homeland. And the threat may have something to do with aviation.

Anonymous officials have confirmed that a person infected with active Tuberculosis and on the CDC's "Do Not Board" list was allowed to fly from Philadelphia to San Francisco last Saturday (1/9). The male passenger has not been identified, but the flight was US Airways Flight 401. The man was stopped and quarantined in San Francisco when he tried to board another flight out of the country.

What NASA scientists believe is a small asteroid, dubbed 2010 AL30, is to pass relatively close to earth on Wednesday.
Originally thought to be a piece of a derelict man-made object, 2010 AL30, is expected to be as near as one-third the distance between the Earth and Moon. The approximately 36-foot wide object was only discovered this past Sunday (1/10).

DHS announced Tuesday (1/12) that Secretary Napolitano will travel to Europe next week to meet with her EU counterparts and members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in order to discuss ways of improving international aviation security measures and standards.

China announced Tuesday (1/12) the successful test of a ground-based system designed to shoot down incoming missiles.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu is quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying, "The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country."
China's announcement follows the U.S. decision to sell new weaponry, including Patriot PAC-3 missiles, to Taiwan. Read moreBy Planet Data

If you are travelling to the east anytime soon and wish to do so in maximum comfort, luxury and style, Singapore Airlines has to be the best option all things considered. Despite the fact that Etihad Airways won the Travel Awards for 2009 reported previously in Perpetual Traveller, it was Singapore Airlines that received a host of other industry awards in the same year as they have been performing consistently well for decades. Singapore Airlines was founded in 1947 and has progressively developed into a world-renowned carrier with a reputation for excellent service on all its flights.

In a worldwide survey conducted by the OAG (Official Airline Guide), the international carrier that performed best amongst the frequent business travellers was Singapore Airlines. Moreover, the airline also received the accolade of OAG airline of the year for the 7th time at the organisation's industry awards in 2009.

Other honors include being named the best global airline for the 21st consecutive…

On Friday NORAD scrambled F-16 fighter jets to intercept Air Tran Flight 39 from Atlanta bound for San Francisco after it received reports of an unruly passengers on board. The flight was diverted to Colorado Springs where a male passenger was arrested.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport lost power early this morning due to a local transformer catching on fire. According to numerous reports the airport is effectively shutdown until power can be restored, and officials hope this will happen by this afternoon.
It is safe to say if you're flying into or out of Hopkins you should call your airline to check your flight status.

All air traffic at Boston's Logan International Airport was halted for about 25 minutes this morning while a Delta Connection flight aborted its takeoff and evacuated its passengers due to the smell of smoke in the cockpit. The source of the smell is under investigation.

At the end of December we had a post about Russia granting Georgia permission to renew chartered air service from T'bilisi to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. There were some delays at the time that prevented the flights from resuming, but now they have. On Friday, Georgian Airways made the first direct flight between the two countries since the August 2008 war over South Ossetia.

"Eurostar cancelled 50 percent of London to Paris trains Friday as a cold snap continued to disrupt transport across Europe. Conditions caused long delays at airports and are raising concerns among fuel suppliers in the UK."

Late Thursday afternoon, the White House released its "Summary Regarding 12/25/2009 Attempted Terrorist Attack". The full text is available here on the White House website.
The following is what the Obama administration says are the "most significant" findings of the preliminary review:
The U.S. Government had sufficient information prior to the attempted December 25 attack to have potentially disrupted the AQAP plot-i.e., by identifying Mr. Abdulmutallab as a likely operative of AQAP and potentially preventing him from boarding flight 253.
The Intelligence Community leadership did not increase analytic resources working on the full AQAP threat.
The watchlisting system is not broken but needs to be strengthened and improved, as evidenced by the failure to add Mr. Abdulmutallab to the No Fly watchlist.
A reorganization of the intelligence or broader counterterrorism community is not required to address problems that surfaced in the review, a fact made clear by count…

A Slovakian police officer testing luggage-screening tactics at Poprad International Airport in Bratislava failed to remove the test explosives from a travelers bag last Saturday. The piece of luggage made it onto a flight to Dublin and into the apartment of the bag's owner. The revelation only came to light on Tuesday when the Slovakian police notified their Irish counterparts. Law enforcement in both nations has launched investigations.

Yesterday a security scare caused authorities to shutdown and evacuate Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California. There was a lot of confusion and conflicting reports about the incident during the day, but here's what really happened.
A checked piece of luggage set off an alarm while going through an explosives detection machine. Two TSA workers opened the bag and discovered five Gatorade bottles containing what appeared to be something other than the sports drink. When two screeners tested the substance in one of the bottles their test chemicals reacted with the substance and caused fumes that made them nauseas. Turns out the goo in the bottles was honey.Read more

On Wednesday Hawaiian Airlines Flight 39 bound for Honolulu, turned around and returned to Portland about 90-minutes into the flight because the pilot and crew were concerned about a disruptive passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to stow his carry-on luggage. It is not clear what the threats were, but after the plane landed, the suspect was questioned by the FBI and then released. No charges have been filed.

CNN reports that TSA-funded and NY/NJ Port Authority-installed and -operated security cameras inside Newark Liberty International Airport were not recording when a man breached a security checkpoint at Terminal 3 last Sunday.
The incident in which a man was seen walking through a security checkpoint exit and into a secured area led officials to have to rescreen thousands of travelers.

Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is spearheading a major campaign to deliver substantial, sector-wide energy, water and waste reduction by the end of 2010.

Under its industry-leading Environmental, Health and Safety Management System (EHSMS) for the emirate?s entire tourism sector, ADTA is targeting 10% energy, 20% water and 20% waste-to-landfill savings over the coming year.

?These ambitious targets are aimed at improving the environmental performance of hotels so that they are in line, if not better than, the world?s greenest hotels,? explained Nasser Al Reyami, ADTA?s Director Tourism Standards.

The initiatives have been rolled out in a series of EHSMS seminars and workshops to help stakeholders, hotels in particularly, kick-start programmes aimed at meeting the 12 month deliverables. The seminars have given delegates an introduction to Abu Dhabi?s tourism sector EHSMS, outlined how organisations can develop an individual entity EHSMS and how to audit it.

Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos is considering a special project to prevent a large asteroid called Apophis from colliding with the earth in 2036. Anatoly Perminov the head of the Russian agency said a scientist told him "the asteroid will surely collide with the earth," but other sources like NASA put the odds of a collision at "four-in-a-million". If they go ahead with the project, Russia says it could invite experts from Europe, the U.S. and China to participate.

Not one, but two Delta flights had to return to Boston's Logan Airport on Saturday after the pilots reported smoky smells in their cockpits. Delta's Flight 1379 headed to New York and Delta's Flight 6001 headed to Columbus, Ohio were those involved and both landed safely back in Boston. The causes of the incidents are under investigation.

During his weekly radio and Internet address today (1/2), President Obama publicly linked the suspect who tried to blow-up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day with a Yemeni affiliate of al-Qaeda. Mr. Obama also said this group has been responsible for other attacks on American targets such as the U.S Embassy in Yemen in 2008. The U.S is working to strengthen ties with Yemen to fight al-Qaeda according to Mr. Obama.

"Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano [has] announced that she is dispatching Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman and other senior Department officials on a broad international outreach effort to meet with leaders from major international airports in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America to review security procedures and technology being used to screen passengers on flights bound for the United States.

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The Skytrax World Airline Awards feature the most acclaimed recognition within the industry that any airline can wish to win! As such the awards are commonly known by insiders as the "Oscars of the aviation industry”. Each airline knows that the annual announcement has become a truly worldwide benchmark of airline excellence.

Travellers across the planet take part each year in the world’s largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to determine the eventual winners. The Skytrax Survey and Awards Methodology is fully transparent, and the process remains 100% independent, meaning no payment or advertising by any airline takes place, nor is there any involvement of any other outside organizations, concerning any aspect of the customer survey or Awards presentation event.

So as every Perpetual Traveller wants to know, who are the winners, losers and shakers for 2017? Here below is the world’s Top 10:

As Perpetual Travellers we are all too quick to judge the transportation means and accommodation units that we frequent, whilst demanding ever increasing services at lower cost in line with our needs, but who is judging us the Tourists?

Having worked in the Tourism Industry for over 25 years within the fields of Hotels, Tour Operators, Airlines and Cruises, I learned from many of my former colleagues typically over coffee breaks or in more informal settings, that we the industry people often categorize Tourists and the behaviors of our Guests by their nationality, which in all honesty involves a measure of stereotyping.

For example many of us know that omni-present classic European statement, which is supposed to explain the essence of our strengths and weaknesses, as an expression of how we view ourselves in Europe. If you are not familiar, it goes something like this…

The perfect Europe would be when all the…Cooks were French Police are British Mechanics are German Lovers are Italia…

International Living has gain fame and notoriety among Expats for its high credible means testing, ranking, rating, and naming of the world's best retirement destinations, better known as the "Annual Global Retirement Index". I remember buying the International Living Newsletters, books and special report back in the 1990's when I first retired and today there still going strong!

As time and tide passed, International Living actively added new
categories and considerations into the mix, gathering compelling and fresh ways of looking at the data, as well as increasing the number of questions and penetrating deeper towards a wider audience of Expats.

Over the years, countries tend to come and go on the International Living Top 10 list. For example Malaysia entered the frame in 2000 and Colombia in 2007.

In 2017 however, the
winner "Mexico" has been constantly in the Top 10 throughout the past 14 years. Moreover, Mexico is celebrating the top spot for the …